Mars:The Viking Discoveries

Mars:The Viking Discoveries

Bevan M. French
Chief, Extraterrestrial Materials Research Program
Office of Lunar and Planetary Programs
Office of Space Sciences, NASA

EP-146
October 1977

NASA
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Table of Contents
The New Arrival 5

Why Mars? 5
Viking to Seek Answers 6
The Viking Spacecraft 6
A Viking's-Eye View 8
The Winds of Mars 12
The Chemistry of Mars 18
Three Chances for Life 20
From Mars to Einstein 22

What Next? 24

Appendix
Suggestions for Further Reading 32
Experiments and Activities 33

Suggested Viewing 36

Cover photo: Twilight on Mars; from Viking

1 Lander, processed by computer.

Inside front cover: Dawn on Mars; Viking 1

orbiter photo found early-morning fog filling
this network of canyons on a high Martian
plateau.

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents,

U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402
Stock No. 033-000-00703-5
Preface
Mars: The Viking Discoveries is the
17th NASA educational publication to
outline the results of NASA's research
activities in space sciences.
Prepared in a format that will be
useful to the teacher of basic courses
in Earth science, Earth-space science,
astronomy, physics, and geology, they
are also written in a style that will
appeal to the well-informed,
intellectually curious layman.
The author, Dr. Bevan M. French, is
a geologist who has studied Moon
rocks and ancient terrestrial meteorite
craters for more than 10 years. In 1973
he helped discover a Brazilian impact
crater 25 miles in diameter and 150
million years old. He now manages
NASA's program for scientific research
on meteorites, lunar samples, and
other kinds of extraterrestrial materials,
as Chief, Extraterrestrial Materials
Research Program, Office of Space
Science. His program is also helping
NASA plan ahead for the return of
rocks from yet another world-Mars-
so that scientists can find out directly
what the Red Planet is really like.
For assisting the author with helpful
advice, comments, and criticism, we
thank the following: Dr. Richard S.
Young, Director, Planetary Biology and
Quarantine, Office of Space Science,
NASA; Loyal G. Goff, Program
Scientist, and Walter Jakobowski,
Manager, Viking Program, Office of
Space Science, NASA; Dr. Harry
Herzer, Senior Specialist, NASA
Aerospace Education Services Project
and faculty associate, California State
University, Chico; Ms. Carolyn P.
Schotter, Teacher of Earth Science,
Falls Church High School, Fairfax
County, Virginia; and Ms. Jeanne
Hewitt, Department of Geology, The
George Washington University. For
extensive editing and revision, we
express appreciation to Ms. Mary-Hill
French.
October 1977
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration
Washington, D.C.
 The New Arrival
Exactly 7 years after astronauts first
landed on the Moon, a new inhabitant
arrived on Mars. On July 20, 1976, a
top-shaped object dropped from its
orbit hundreds of kilometers above
Mars and streaked. downward into the
late afternoon Martian sky. About 40
kilometers above the surface of the
planet, the thin air began to grip and
slow the capsule. At an altitude of 6
kilometers, a huge parachute unfurled,
a protective shell broke away, and the
metallic object inside began to drop to
the ground more slowly. At an altitude
of 1.7 kilometers, three rocket engines
fired downward, slowing the
spacecraft even more. The parachute
, was cut loose, and the object settled
gently to the ground. The rocket
engines immediately shut down. The
Viking 1 Lander had arrived on Mars
with no more shock than a terrestrial
skydiver landing in the center of his
target.
Instantly the computer that had
guided the spacecraft on its journey
sent a message to Earth that said
essentially: "I am here. I am down
safely. I am beginning my work." Earth
was more than 321 million kilometers
(290 million miles) away, and even at
the incredibly fast speed of light
(300,000 kilometers per second), it
was almost 20 minutes later, 5:12
A.M., Pacific Daylight Time, before the
Lander's message reached the Viking
Figure 1. Mars at Close Range. Tiny
Martian pebbles appear in sharp detail in
this first picture ever taken on the surface
of Mars. Even after being transmitted for
320 million kilometers (200 million miles),
the picture is so clear that the observer
seems to stand on Mars beside the Viking
1 Lander. One of the Lander's footpads
(lower right) rests firmly on a surface made
of fine soil and scattered rocks. Large rock
(upper center) shows triangular faces that
may have been cut by wind-driven sand.
Another rock is dotted with
small dark pits that possibly were formed
by gas escaping from once-molten lava.
The picture was taken with a camera that
scanned the scene vertically, line by line,
from left to right, completing the picture in
about 5 minutes.
Control Center at the NASA Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California. When the applause and
congratulations began on Earth, Viking
1 already had been studying Mars for
20 minutes. Moments later, Earth's TV
screens began to show the first
plctures of Viking 1's footpad, firmly
planted on the soil of Mars (Figure 1).
A new era in our exploration of the
Red Planet had begun.
Why Mars?
Mars has been in humanity's
thoughts since astronomy began. The
Babylonians first began to follow the
motions of what to them was a
wandering red light in the sky, and
they named it Nergal after their god of
war. Later, the Romans, honoring their
own war-god, gave the planet its
present name.
A century ago, as the first large
telescopes were trained on Mars,
observers saw that the planet had a
reddish surface, white polar caps, an
atmosphere, clouds, and changing
patterns of light and dark that might
be vegetation on its surface. It seemed
to be an Earthlike planet on which life
could exist, and some astronomers
claimed to see long lines of canals
made by intelligent beings. Fiction
writers, therefore, needed little
encouragement to populate Mars with
a wide variety of creatures:
philosophical canal builders, leathery
monsters who invaded Earth, and a
variety of humanoids with human traits
of good and evil.
The Space Age methodically
removed the basis for much of this
kind of romance about Mars. No
canals could be seen at close range,
and their appearance was explained
as optical illusions that had affected
Earthly astronomers. The Martian
atmosphere proved too thin to breathe,
and there was very little water. These
discoveries only increased our
curiosity about the real nature of Mars
and its relation to the other worlds we
know. The discoveries did not rule out
the possibility that some form of life
might exist on the distant planet. Mars
was neither entirely dry and airless like
the Moon, nor watery and teeming with
life like the Earth. What was Mars
really like, and what could it tell us
about the Earth and the Moon?
Exploration of the solar system had
earlier been established as a top
NASA goal for the period after Apollo.
The program was aimed at a better
understanding of the solar system's
origin and evolution, the origin of life,
and the planetary processes that
affect life on Earth. Because Mars, of
all the planets, most resembled the
Earth and appeared the most likely to
harbor some form of life, it was given
top priority for scientific study.
As spacecraft observed the planet
in closer and closer detail, we
discovered that Mars is not uniform.
The early flybys (Mariner 4 in 1964
and Mariners 6 and 7 in 1969) had
produced photos of a heavily cratered
surface that looked as dead and static
as the surface of the Moon. But the
photographs and maps obtained from
Mariner 9 in 1971, as it orbited Mars
for about a year, showed that the
planet is actually a two-part world.
The southern half of Mars, which the
first Mariner spacecraft had looked at,
seems much like the surface of the
Moon: ancient, inactive, and still
heavily cratered by an intense
meteorite bombardment that may have
occurred during the planet's earliest
years.
The northern half of Mars is more
Earthlike: younger appearing,
geologically active, and perhaps still
changing. In this part of Mars the
Mariner 9 pictures showed huge
volcanoes, great fields of lava, and
cracks and fractures in the crust. Most
surprising, and most exciting to
scientists, were huge canyons and
winding, braided channels that
seemed to have been scoured by
floods of running water, although no
liquid water can be seen on the
surface of Mars.
By the early 1970s Mars had been
recognized as an "in-between" world,
partly like the Earth, partly like the
Moon, yet unique in many ways.
Viking to Seek Answers
The Viking mission would make a
more thorough study to answer some
of the questions raised by Mariner 9.
For example, how old are the huge
volcanoes that Mariner 9 had
discovered on Mars? It was clear that
Mars, like the Earth and Moon,
showed evidence of internal heat and
volcanic activity. But the Moon has
been dead and quiet for more than 3
billion years, since the last floods of
lava poured across its surface to form
the lunar "seas." The Earth, on the
other hand, has been active for the
same length of time and is still active
today. If the volcanoes of Mars are
old, then Mars may be a dead world
like the Moon. If the volcanoes are
young (and to geologists, a few
hundred million years is "young"), then
Mars may still be an active planet like
the Earth.
The winding channels carved across
the Martian surface are another
mystery revealed by Mariner 9. If these
channels were cut by flood waters,
then where has all the water gone? Is
Mars now in an ice age like those that
once chilled the Earth? Was Mars'
water now frozen away underground,
waiting for a slight warming to bring it
rushing forth again? The further study
of Mars might show us how the Earth
had started its long history of volcanic
activity, and we might even learn how
climatic changes and ice ages begin
and end.
Moreover, where there are heat and
liquid water, there may be life. "How
did life start?" and "Is there life
elsewhere?" are basic questions that
we continue to ask as we explore
other planets. The scorched and
waterless Moon has yielded no trace
of life. On Earth, the records of the
origin of life have been erased by the
development and activities of later
plant and animal life forms. On Mars,
where the environment for life is
neither as harsh as the Moon's nor as
generous as the Earth's we might find,
still preserved, the answers to how life
came into being. We might even find
life itself, answering one of our oldest
speculations. Whether Viking detected
a humanoid or invisible microbe, the
discovery of any Martian life would put
us forever in a new relationship to the
universe around us.
The Viking Spacecraft
The Viking Mission to Mars thus
combined two major goals: to study
the atmosphere and geology of the
entire planet, and to analyze its soil
and search for life in two specific
locations. Each of the two Vikings
launched toward Mars in 1975 was a
double spaceship. One part, the
Orbiter, would circle Mars
continuously, photographing the
surface of Mars and analyzing its
atmosphere from hundreds of
kilometers above the planet. The other
half, the Lander, would go down to the
surface of Mars, carrying a battery of
instruments to probe directly around
the landing site. Once down, the
Lander would never leave. The Vikings
would not return to Earth with a load of
Martian rocks and soil. Instead they
would radio back to Earth their
discoveries about the atmosphere,
chemistry, quakes, soil, and, perhaps,
the life of Mars.
The landing of Viking 1 on the
surface of Mars was a complicated
and ambitious undertaking, more
difficult in some ways than landing
astronauts on the Moon. Engineers
knew that, at the moment of landing,
Mars and Earth would be so far apart
that communications between the
Viking and its Earth-bound human
controllers would take about 20
minutes for a one-way trip. At such
distances, there is no possibility of
direct intervention if anything goes
wrong. Once the computer on the
Viking spacecraft was given the order
to land, the landing went ahead
automatically, and the people on Earth
could only wait and hope.
Considering these difficulties, it was
not surprising that Viking 1 was
actually the fourth attempt to land a
spacecraft on the surface of Mars.
Two Soviet spacecraft, Mars-2 (1971)
and Mars-6 (1973), apparently
crashed while attempting to land. A
third Soviet spacecraft, Mars-3 (1971)
soft-landed safely but stopped
operating after less than 20 seconds
on the surface.
The Viking mission had two unique
and important features designed to
make the landing successful. First, the
landing area was to be carefully
photographed and inspected while the
spacecraft stayed in orbit around
Mars. In addition, the actual landing
could be postponed until an
acceptable site was found. Viking 1
spent a month circling Mars while the
cameras in the Orbiter portion
photographed possible landing sites in
great detail and transmitted the
photographs back to Earth where
scientists examined them for rough
ground, boulders, and other possible
hazards.
The Viking photographs were
sharper and more detailed than
anything obtained during the earlier
Mariner missions. Landing sites that
had been considered safe because
they seemed smooth and level in the
Mariner 9 pictures suddenly displayed
Figure 2. A Viking Robot Ready for Mars.
A full-size worklng model of the Viklng
Lander sits on a simulated Martian surface
at the -NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
This spacecraft, about 1.5 meters (5 feet)
across and about 0.5 meters (1.5 feet)
high, weighs about 890 kilograms (1 ton).
The soil sample collecting arm stretches
about 3 meters (10 feet) to the lower right.
The cameras are the vertical cylinders,
each with a vertical black slit. The disk,
top rear, is the S-band high-gain radio
antenna that transmits to Earth the camera
pictures and scientific data. Equipment
and instruments are identified in the
accompanying diagram.
 Radar altimeter
electronics number 1

Radioisotope thermoelectri

Terminal desce

radar (underside of
Furlable boom
Lander structure)

Collector head

Magnets

deep gullies, scattered craters, and
rugged outcrops of rock-no place to
land a spacecraft which had only 22
centimeters (8 '12 inches) of ground
clearance. While the photographs
were being scanned, the large radio
telescopes at Arecibo, Puerto Rico,
and Goldstone, California, bounced
radar waves off Mars, using the radar
reflections to measure the roughness
of the planet's surface in different
regions. First one landing site was
rejected, and then another. Finally, a
new site was located, photographed,
scanned with radar, and found
acceptable, and Viking 1 descended
to a perfect landing in a level rolling
region called the Plains of Chryse. A
little more than a month later, after a
similar thorough check of a more
northern region of Mars, the Viking 2
Lander made an equally flawless
landing on the Plains of Utopia. Two
Landers sit on the surface of Mars,
while two Orbiters circle overhead,
photographing the planet and relaying
back to Earth the news of what the
Landers find.
The Landers on the surface of Mars
are far more complex than any
automatic spacecraft launched before.
Even if the Landers had never left
Earth, their design and construction
would still be an impressive
technological achievement. Each
lander looks like a cluttered six-sided
workbench with three legs (Figure 2)
but it contains the equivalent of two
power stations, two computer centers,
a TV studio, a weather station, an
earthquake detector, two chemical
laboratories (one for organic and one
for inorganic analyses), three separate
~ncubatorsfor any Martian life, a scoop
and backhoe for digging trenches and
collecting soil samples, and miniature
ra~lroadcars for delivering the samples
to the laboratories and incubators.
Equipment that would normally fill
several buildings had been designed
in miniature to fit on a spacecraft less
than 3 meters (10 feet) across.
Furthermore, to avoid contaminating
Mars with Earthly bacteria, the entire
spacecraft was sterilized by heating it
to temperatures above the boiling
point of water. Each Lander, and all of
its 1 million separate parts, had to
survive a number of major crises: the
sterilization heating, the shock and
vibration of launch, a one-year, 400-
million mile trip through interplanetary
space, the passage through Mars'
atmosphere, and the landing on its
surface. No wonder there were
heartfelt cheers from the scientists and
engineers when Viking 1's first pictures
began to appear!
The Landers are so well designed
that it is often possible to fix them
when things go wrong. When the
sampling arm on Viking 1 got stuck, a
carefully-planned series of commands
from Earth freed it, and the cameras
then showed that a small pin which
had caused the trouble had fallen free
to the ground. Later, when the arm
stuck again, this time in an extended
position, a different series of
commands brought it safely back into
the spacecraft. Each of these "repairs"
was a carefully-planned operation.
Each set of commands was first tested
on a duplicate Viking Lander sitting on
a simulated Martian surface at the
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and
the cameras on the real Viking were
used to check the progress of the
"repairs" at every step.
With the minor troubles corrected,
the Landers even took on new tasks
that had not been planned before the
landing. After digging up samples of
exposed soil, the Lander's sampl~ng
arm was used to push large rocks
aside and to collect samples of the
protected soil beneath them (Figure 3).
A Viking's-Eye View
The safe landing of Viking 1
immediately established one basic fact
about Mars: the planet's surface is
strong enough to support a heavy
machine. The Lander rested firmly on
a rolling plain strewn with rocks, and
the cameras on the Lander began
almost immediately to transmit back to
Earth the first views of the Martian
landscape.
Viking's cameras stood about 1.6
meters (5 feet) above the ground, and
their view of Mars was much like what
a person standing in the same place
would see. The two cameras could be
operated independently to provide
panoramas covering almost a full
circle around the Lander. They could
be operated together to produce
stereo pictures from which the shape
of the surrounding surface could be
accurately measured (Figure 4). Most
of the pictures were black-and-white,
but different detectors inside the
cameras were sometimes used to
provide pictures that reproduced the
actual hues of the Martian surface.
The first pictures showed firm soil
and scattered rocks immediately
beneath the Lander. As the cameras
looked out to the horizon, they
photographed a gently rolling red
landscape that could almost have
been a desert scene in the American
Southwest. The reddish gray soil was
dotted with rocks of all sizes. The
colors of the rocks varied from dark
gray to light gray to slightly reddish
(Figure 5). Some rocks showed up in
great detail, and many were filled with
bubbles. These rocks looked like the
lavas produced by erupting gas-rich
volcanoes on Earth, and scientists
think that the bedrock on which both
Vikings have landed is made up of
ancient Martian lava flows.
The Viking cameras also saw wind-
produced features that have familiar
counterparts in Earth's deserts.
Although the atmosphere of Mars is
th~n,its winds are still strong enough
to blow dust and fine sand across the
surface. There are dunes of light-
colored sand, and detailed pictures of
the dunes revealed finer ripples within
them (Figure 6). There are places
where the wind apparently scoured out
the fine soil, revealing flat masses of
Figure 3. "Mr. Badger" Gets a Nudge.
Controlled by scientists back on Earth, the
sampling arm on the Vrkng 2 Lander
reaches out to push aside a large porous
rock and to collect a sample of the
protected Martian soil beneath it. Because
of its shape, the rock was rnformally
christened "Mr. Badger" after a character
in Kenneth Grahame's book, The Wind m
the Wrllows. The Mart~an"Mr. Badger" is
about 25 centmeters (10 ~nches)long and
we~ghsseveral pounds

Figure 4. Mars in 3-0 These two images

of the same scene, one taken by each
camera on the Vikrng 1 Lander, can be
combined, by using a pocket stereo
viewer, into a single 3-drmensional view
that shows the rolling Martian terrarn and
the shapes of the numerous boulders.
(When lookng at the images with a stereo
vrewer, concentrate on a small object like
a rock. Move the viewer around untrl the
two rmages of the rock come together.
Then you should see the landscape in R- d
Figure 5. A Summer Day's Work on
Mars. Traces of human exploratron already
show on the red surface of Mars. Two
trenches dug by the so11samplrng arm of
the Vlklng 1 Lander appear as short black
smudges (left), and the so11near the
bottom of the plcture that appears cracked
and prtted was disturbed by the rocket
exhaust blast at touchdown and by the
rmpact of the footpads. The so11sarnpkng
arm and scoop 1s at rrght center, arm
(lower left) holds a brush for cleanng off
magnets Lrght and dark rocks can be
seen. The dark rock to the rrght of the
trenches 1s about 25 centrmeters (10
Inches) across. The apparent horlzon a
about 100 meters (330 feet) away and
may be the r ~ mof a small Impact crater.
Boulders 1 and 2 meters (3 and 6 feet)
across are vls~blein the distance.

Figure 6. Early Morning on a Martian

Desert. The variety of the Martran surface
1s captured ~nthrs panorama by the Vlkmg
1 Lander. The v~ewcovers a horizontal
angle of about 100 degrees, about one-
quarter of a circle. Maroan northeast 1s at
the left, southeast at the rlght. The newly-
rlsen Sun a just above the center of the
plcture Shapes of the small sand dunes
(center and left) mdrcate that the wlnds
that formed them blew from upper left
toward lower rrght. Large boulder (left),
named "Brg Joe," measures 1 by 3 meters
(3 by 10 feet) and IS only 8 meters (25
feet) from the Lander. The vertlcal white
object (center) 1s the Vlklng boom that
holds the weather-measuring Instruments

grayish bedrock. At other places,
streaks of dust have been deposited
over and behind boulders. When
Viking 1 first landed, some of these
piles of red dust were being eroded
and blown away by the summer
breezes th'at swirled around the
Lander.
Sometimes the Viking cameras
turned away from the landscape to
study in detail the mechanical
properties of the ground on which the
Lander rests. The cameras carefully
photographed the streaks produced in
the soil by the rocket engines when
Viking landed. Later, as the soil was
trenched and probed and shaken to
collect samples, the cameras recorded
the appearance of marks, trenches,
and clods of soil on the surface
(Figure 7). By studying these pictures.
scientists back on Earth were able to
determine that the Martian soil is about
Figure 8. A Crowd of Martian Rocks. Like
a throng of curious onlookers, thousands
of rocks and boulders surround the Viking
2 Lander as it rests on Mars' Plains of
Utopia. The field of rock and soil extends
to the horizon about 3 kilometers (2 miles)
away. (The horizon, actually level, appears
tilted because the spacecraft is resting on
the surface at a slight angle to the
horizontal.) Many of the rocks display
small pits and holes that may be bubbles
formed when the rocks were molten lava.
The rock in the lower right corner is about
25 centimeters (10 inches) across, and the
large rock in the center is about 60
centimeters (2 feet) long. The small sandy
trough that winds across the picture from
upper left to lower right is part of an
unexplained network of such channels or
depress~onsthat form strange polygonal
surface patterns in the Utopia region.
as firm as good farming soil on Earth.
The soil of Mars sticks together in
about the same way, too: smaller
particles clump together into larger
clods, and the walls of shallow
trenches remain straight and show
little tendency to collapse.
Seen from the surface, the two
Viking landing sites have their
differences. The Plains of Utopia,
where Viking 2 landed, are more
rolling than the Plains of Chryse where
Viking 1 sits. The Viking 1 site (Chryse)
apparently has a larger variety of rock
types, while the rocks at the Viking 2
locality (Utopia) are more uniform,
generally vesicular (bubble-rich), and
more abundant. There is bedrock
exposed at the Chryse site, and none
visible at Utopia.
There are rippled sand dunes at the
Chryse location, and none at Utopia.
The boulders at the Chryse site
commonly have flat, polished faces,
apparently produced by wind-blown
sand.
The Utopia site (Viking 2) shows an
unexplained pattern of shallow troughs
that connect to form polygonal
patterns. One of these troughs runs
right past the Viking 2 Lander (Figure 8).
The Winds of Mars
For the first time we can now
measure and record the weather on
another world. Unlike the airless Moon,
Mars has an atmosphere, winds, and
weather patterns.
Mars' atmosphere is thinner and
colder than Earth's, and scientists
were eager to study its weather
patterns in the hope of finding general
principles that would help us better
understand the weather of our own
planet. The Viking cameras often
looked above the horizon to
photograph the sky, and a battery of
instruments recorded winds,
barometric pressure, and the chemical
composition of the atmosphere of Mars
(Figure 9).
Viking's first view of the sky
produced a major surprise. Although
many scientists had expected that the
Martian sky would be blue like that of
Earth, the Viking pictures showed
instead that it has a creamy-pinkish
hue (Figure 10). The explanation is
that the Martian atmosphere contains a
great deal of fine suspended red dust.
 Figure 9. " And Now, the Weather for
Mars." The first interplanetary weather
reports come from a small white
Instrument box (upper r~ghtjmounted on
the end of a long boom that holds the box
about 1.3 meters (4 feet) above the
Martian surface. The boom holds the box
out of range of most wind disturbances
caused by the 'body of the Viking Lander.
instruments En the box measure the wind
velocity, w~nddirectton, temperature, and
atmospheric pressure. In the background
are sand dunes formed by strong Martian
winds. The parallel bands in the sky are
not real, they were produced by the
computer processing of the picture.

Figure 10. A Red Sky for a Red Planet.

The red surface of Maw lends its color to
the Martlan sky in this view from the Viking
1 Lander. Fine red dust from the soil is
carried lnto the atmosphere, giving the sky
a pnkish hue instead of the blue color
expected by scientists. Light and dark
boulders are strewq on the surface in the
foreground, and light-gray ledges of
1 bedrock appear through She so11in the
middle distance. The horizon, about 100
meters (330 feet) away, may be the nm of
an impact crater. Thls color ptcture was
made by combining three separate
prctures, each taken through a different
color filter. The colafs were matched by
comparing similar pictures taken of
colored objects on the Viking Lander itself.
 Although the individual dust particles
are tiny, perhaps only 0.001 millimeter
(1125,000 inch) across, there is
apparently enough of this dust in the
air to give the whole sky a reddish tint.
Earth's sky is generally not so dusty.
Only after large volcanic eruptions or
sandstorms do we see a reddening of
terrestrial sunsets that produces
something like the color of the Martian
sky.
The sky of Mars grew even dustier
several months after the Vikings
landed, and tlie spacecraft carefully
recorded the change.
Astronomers have known for years
that huge dust storms often come
' swirling out of the southern part of
Mars, covering the whole planet and
shutting off the surface from the view
of Earth-based telescopes. Such a
storm shrouded Mars in 1971 as
Mariner 9 arrived in orbit, and the
spacecraft was able to provide a
photographic record of the storm's
subsidence and the gradual
appearance of the Martian surface
through the clouds of dust. These dust
storms usually develop as Mars
reaches the point in its orbit that is
closest to the Sun, and in the Spring of
1977, these clouds arose again and
spread over the Martian surface. High
above the storms, the Viking Orbiter
cameras photographed the shapes of
the dust clouds and followed their
progress. With these data, scientists
are learning more about Martian winds
and about the nature of the dust that
they carry.
After Viking landed, the Martian
weather was clear, cold, uniform, and
repetitious. The weather report,
recorded by the Viking instruments
and broadcast to Earth on the first
day, remained almost unchanged from
day to day:
"Light winds from the East in the late
afternoon, changing to light winds from
the Southeast after midnight. Maximum
winds were 15 miles per hour.
Temperature ranged from minus 122"
Fahrenheit just after dawn to minus 22"
Fahrenheit in midafternoon.
Atmospheric pressure 7.70 millibars."
(On Earth the same day, July 21,
1976, the lowest temperature recorded
was minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit at
the Soviet Vostok Research Station in
the Antarctic, and the highest
temperature was plus 117" F at
Timimoun, Algeria. The United States
recorded a high of 109" F. at Needles,
California and a low of 37" F. at Point
Barrow, Alaska.)
Some of the similarities between
Mars' weather and Earth's were
surprising, because the atmos'phere
of Mars is less than a hundredth as
dense as Earth's. Nevertheless, on
both planets, the atmospheric
temperature reached its peak at about
3 P.M. local time. The daily
temperature variations recorded by
Viking showed the same pattern as
records from a terrestrial desert
"control" site at China Lake, California,
although the temperatures in the two
places differed by more than 83" C.
(150" F.). Furthermore, the changing
patterns of wind direction over the flat
Plains of Chryse on Mars were
duplicated by the winds blowing over
the equally flat Great Plains of the
midwestern United States.
Martian weather includes two other
features familiar to terrestrial weather
watchers--clouds and fog. The air of
Mars contains only about 111000 as
much water as Earth's atmosphere,
but even this small amount can
condense out, forming clouds that ride
high in the atmosphere or swirl around
the high slopes of Martian volcanoes
(Figure 11). In small valleys,
atmospheric water freezes out during
the Martian night and then vaporizes
again when the sun rises, forming
local patches of white fog that vanish
quickly in the relative warmth of the
Martian day (Figure 12).
Totally unlike the Earth, however,
was the steady decline in atmospheric
pressure recorded by the Viking
instruments. During the Lander's first
month on Mars, the atmospheric
pressure dropped by about 5 percent.
(On Earth, such a large drop in
pressure is usually found only in the
eye of a major hurricane.) Scientists
think that the carbon dioxide (CO,)
which makes up most of Mars'
atmosphere was freezing out as solid
CO, (or "dry ice") on the cold southern
polar cap, which was then in the
middle of the Martian winter. The
Viking landers thus seem able, from
two points on the surface, to detect
the slow growth of an entire polar cap
thousands of kilometers away, a feat
that would be impossible in the
complex water-rich atmosphere of
Earth.
While one group of scientists
followed the changes in Mars' weather,
an entirely different group was busy
analyzing the chemical composition of
the atmosphere itself. The gases in a
planet's atmosphere can come from
many different sources. Some gases
may have been trapped from the
original solar nebula when the planet
formed. Others may have been
released by heat and chemical
Figure 11. Martian Volcano Towers
Above the Clouds. In this Viking 1 Orbiter
photograph taken from 8,000 kilometers
(5,000 miles) away, clouds cover the lower
slopes of Mars' largest volcano, Olympus
Mons (Mount Olympus), making it look like
a satellite picture of a terrestrial hurricane.
The huge mass of the volcano is 600
kilometers (375 miles) across, and the
cliffs that mark its edge can be seen in the
upper right corner. The summit stands 24
kilometers (15 miles) above the Martian
surface, and the summit crater, visible
above the clouds, is 80 kilometers (50
miles) across. The clouds in the upper left
 reactions deep inside the planet. Still
others may be produced by the
transformation (decay) of radioactive
elements in the planet's rocks. The
chemistry of an atmosphere thus
provides unique information about a
planet's origin, its history, and the
chemical composition of its rocks.
Earth's atmosphere is composed
almost entirely of two gases: nitrogen
and oxygen. Scientists believe that the
nitrogen (78 percent of our
atmosphere) came out of the interior of
the Earth billions of years ago, while
the oxygen (21 percent) has been
produced gradually by the plant life
that has existed for billions of years. A
small amount of the inert gas argon
(0.9 percent) has been formed by the
decay of radioactive potassium atoms
in the Earth's crust.
The composition of the Martian
atmosphere was measured in two
places-at high altitudes as the
Lander descended, and on the
surface. The composition was the
same in both places, showing that the
Martian winds keep the atmosphere as
well-mixed as Earth's.
The pressure of Mars' atmosphere is
only about 11125 that of Earth's and its
chemical composition is totally
different. Most of Mars' atmosphere
(95 percent) is carbon dioxide, a gas
which makes up only 0.03 percent of
Figure 12. Foggy Morning in a Martian
Valley. White patches of early-morning fog
and mist fill a rugged network of Martian
canyons and spill out onto the surrounding
high, rust-colored plateau. The clouds are
probably formed by water vapor that has
frozen out of the air during the previous
Martian night. In the sunlight, the water
vaporizes again, becoming briefly visible
as mist before being absorbed into the dry
atmosphere. This part of Mars, called
Labyrinthus Noctis (The Labyrinth of the
Night) was photographed at dawn by the
Viking I Orbiter; the view covers an area
about 100 kilometers (62 miles) on a side.
The color picture was made by
superimposing three separate black-and-
white images taken through color filters.
Earth's atmosphere. The remainder is
nitrogen (2-3 percent) oxygen (0.1-0.4
percent), and argon (1-2 percent). The
discovery of nitrogen was exciting
because this element is an essential
component of the protein molecules
which form living things. The small
amount of free oxygen is surprising,
but this element can be formed in
many ways, arid its presence does not
prove that there is or has been plant
life on Mars.
More precise analyses have
detected traces of the rare inert gases
krypton and xenon in the Martian air.
These two gases make up only about
1 part per million of the Earth's
atmosphere, and scientists have not
yet been able to measure precisely the
tiny amounts present in the air of Mars.
Viking instruments also measured
the ratios of different isotopes in the
Martian atmosphere. (Isotopes are two
atoms of the same chemical element
that have different atomic weights, for
example uranium-235 and uranium-
238.) Isotope ratios of elements in the
atmospheres and rocks of other
planets are important because they
provide information that cannot be
obtained from chemical analyses
alone. Isotope measurements can
indicate the temperature at which
rocks formed; if two different planets
have similar isotope ratios, then they
may have formed from the same part
of the original solar nebula.
The isotope ratios measured by the
Viking Lander show that the
atmosphere of Mars is more Earthlike
than the chemical composition alone
would suggest. The ratio of heavy to
light carbon atoms (carbon-13 to
carbon-12) is 1/89, and the ratio of
heavy to light oxygen atoms (oxygen-
18 to oxygen-16) is 11500. These
values are identical to those measured
in our own atmosphere. However, the
element nitrogen is different. The ratio
of heavy to light nitrogen (nitrogen-15
to nitrogen-14) is 11156 on Mars, while
the value on Earth is 11271.
The carbon and oxygen ratios
demonstrate a basic similarity between
Mars and Earth, despite the chemical
differences in their atmospheres. One
explanation is that both Mars and
Earth formed from, similar parts of the
solar nebula which had the same
isotope ratios.
However, the isotope ratios of
nitrogen provide evidence for different
histories of this element on the two
planets. If the original nitrogen ratio on
Mars had been the same as on the
Earth, then the light atom (nitrogen-14)
must have gradually escaped from the
atmosphere of Mars, possibly because
Mars' gravity is not as strong as
Earth's.
From these atmospheric data,
scientists have calculated that the
ancient atmosphere of Mars, before
the nitrogen was lost, might have been
four or five times as dense as it is
now. This early atmosphere also might
have contained enough water to form
a layer several meters deep over the
whole surface of the planet. Here was
another indication that the winding
channels on Mars actually had been
carved by water, although the
atmospheric analyses could not tell us
where this water had vanished.
The Chemistry of Mars
While the atmosphere of Mars was
giving up its secrets, other scientists
with other instruments began to test
the solid matter of the planet, to see
what could be deciphered from the
rocks and windblown dust around the
spacecraft.
On the eighth day of Viking 1's
residence on Mars, a long arm
reached out from the spacecraft, and
a small scoop at the end of the arm
began to dig a small trench in the
loose soil about two meters away from
where the Lander stood (Figure 7).
Continually guided by a computer
aboard the Lander, the arm carefully
pushed the scoop through the trench
and then retreated slowly back to the
Lander, bringing with it the first sample
of Martian soil ever to be analyzed.
Within the Lander, the soil sample was
sieved automatically, divided, and sent
on its way for several different kinds of
analysis.
One test of the soil did not require a
chemical laboratory. Several magnets
were mounted on the scoop, and
another magnet had been placed on
the outside of the Lander. These
magnets trapped and held magnetic
particles in the soil and windblown
dust. By simply examining these
magnets with the Viking cameras now
and then, the amount of magnetic
material in the Martian soil could be
measured. Early results suggest that
about 5 per cent of the soil is
magnetic material and that it is an iron
oxide like magnetite (Fe,,OJ, the
mineral that forms terrestrial
lodestones. This result makes Mars
seem rather Earthlike; the lunar soil, by
contrast, has only about 1 per cent of
magnetic material, and it is all metallic
iron.
More precise measurements of the
soil were made with an instrument that
bombarded a soil sample with X-rays
and then measured the secondary X-
rays given off by the atoms in the
Martian soil.
The composition of the Martian soil,
as determined by the bombardment
experiment, is approximately the same
at both landing sites, even though the
two sites are about 5000 kilometers
(3100 miles) apart.
The chemical elements detected,
and their amounts (in weight percent),
are: silicon (Si) 21, iron (Fe) 13,
aluminum (Al) 3, magnesium (Mg) 5,
calcium (Ca) 4, sulfur (S) 3, chlorine
(CI) 0.7, titanium (Ti) 0.5, and
potassium (K) less than 0.25.
Scientists calculate that, to balance
these elements, oxygen ( 0 ) makes up
another 42 per cent of the soil, leaving
about 8 percent made up of elements
(e.g.; sodium, hydrogen) that cannot
be detected by this method.
This composition corresponds
approximately to that of a terrestrial or
lunar basalt lava, but there are some
striking differences. The Martian soil
contains less aluminum than a
terrestrial basalt and less titanium than
a lunar basalt.
The unusually large amount of iron
detected confirms the long-held theory
that the red dust of Mars is a red iron
oxide similar to terrestrial rust. The red
color and the small amount (about 5
per cent) of magnetic material suggest
Figure 13. The Ancient Crust of Mars.
Mars shows a battered and heavily-
cratered Moon-like surface in this picture
taken from the Viking 1 Orbiter from
18,000 kilometers (1 1,200 miles) away.
The flat c~rcularplain at top left is Argyre,
a large impact basin about 800 kilometers
(500 miles) in diameter and located in the
southern part of Mars. This basin,
surrounded by a rugged range of
mountains, may have been formed by a
huge meteorite impact billions of years
ago. Smaller, younger craters cover the
Martian surface outside the basin. The air
is clear and cloudless over Argyre, but the
brightness of the distant Martian horizon
(top right) suggests that clou8s are
present there. The parallel white streaks
above the horizon are also cloud layers,
perhaps composed of frozen C o p these
clouds are about 25 to 30 kilometers (15
to 20 miles) above the surface of Mars.
Figure 14. A View Down a Volcano's
Throat. From 6,000 kilometers (3,700
miles) up, the cameras of the Viking 1
Orbiter provide a vertical view of Arsia
Mons, one of Mars' largest volcanoes. The
volcano reaches about 19 kilometers (12
miles) above the surrounding Martian
terrain, more than twice as high as Earth's
Mount Everest. The crcular central area in
its summit is about 120 kilometers (75
miles) across. Around this summit crater,
the slopes of the volcano are covered with
lava flows that produce distinctive braided
patterns seen clearly at the bottom of the
picture. At left and right, small craters and
canyons cut into the main cone of the
volcano; these features may be the
sources of vast amounts of lava that
spilled out to flood the surrounding plains.
that the iron must be present in two or
more distinct m~nerals,only one of
whlch is magnetic.
The chemical analyses rndicate that
the Martian soil cannot be made of
fresh basalt lava alone. The presence
of water (perhaps as much as 1 per
cent) in the soil, the large amount of
iron, and the unusually large amount of
sulfur, all indicate that the soil is a
mrxture of original basalt lava with
other compounds that have formed as
the rock has been changed or
"weathered" by contact with the
atmosphere of Mars. The soil could be
a mixture of iron-rich clay minerals and
other compounds such as Iron
hydroxide and magnesium sulfate.
The soil of Mars is much more
similar to Earth's soil than to the soil of
the Moon. The lunar soil, as we have
learned from the samples returned by
the Apollo missions, is waterless,
unweathered, and formed by the
contrnuous bombardment of large and
small meteorites. Martian so11seems
almost terrestrial, it contains water, it
seems to be weathered, and it is
continually blown about and
redistributed by the wind.
Three Chances for Life
A major goal of the Viking missions
was to determine whether the soil of
Mars was dead like the soil of the
Moon or teeming with mlcroscoplc life
like the soils of Earth. Soil samples
brought into the Lander were divided
and sent to three separate biological
laborator~esto be tested in different
ways for the presence of life.
Searching for life on Mars raises a
basic problem, best summed up as:
"How do you look for life if you don't
know what life looks like?" It was not
possible to build, on one small
spacecraft, enough instruments to
detect all the poss~bleforms of life that
sclentrsts could imagine to exist on
Mars. Before bullding the instruments,
the scientists had to make some
decrsrons about what the instruments
should look for.
The Viking experiments were
designed around two assumpt~ons.
First, rt was assumed that Martian life
would be like Earth life, whrch is based
on the element carbon and thr~vesby
transforming carbon compounds.
Second, the example of Earth shows
that where there are large life forms
(like human beings and elephantsj,
there are also small ones (like
bacteria), and that the small ones are
far more abundant, w~ththousands or
m~llionsof them ~nevery gram of soil.
To have the best possible chance of
detecting life, an Instrument should
look for the most abundant kind of Irfe.
If a Martian verslon of Vrking were sent
to Earth to look for life, it might easrly
land in a place where there were
neither elephants nor humans, but it
would be very unltkely to land in a
place where there were no bacteria rn
the soil.
The Vik~ngInstruments were
designed, therefore, to detect carbon-
based MartIan microbes or s~milar
creatures living ~nthe soil. The three
laboratories in each Lander were
essentially incubators, des~gnedto
warm and nourish any life, living or
dormant, in the Martiansoil and to
detect with sensitive instruments the
chemical products of the organisms'
activrty.
One characteristic of terrestrial
organisms such as plants is that they
transform carbon dioxide (CO,) in the
surrounding air into the organlc
compounds which make up their roots,
branches, and leaves. Accordingly,
one Viking biological experiment,
designated carbon assimilat~on(or
pyrolytic release) added radioactive
CO, to the confined atmosphere
above the soil sample. The sample
was then illuminated with simulated
Martian sunlight. If any Martian life-
forms converted the CO, into organic
compounds, the compounds could be
detected by their radioactivity.
Lrving terrestrial organisms give off
gases. Plants give off oxygen, animals
give off carbon dioxide, and both
exhale water. A second experiment on
each Lander, the gas exchange
experiment was designed to detect
this kind of activity. Nutrients and
water were added to the soil, and the
chemical composition of the gas
above the soil was continuously
analyzed for changes that might
Indicate biological act~vity.
A third experiment on each Lander
was based on the fact that terrestrial
animals (including humans) consume
organic compounds and glve off
carbon dioxide. The labeled release
experiment added a variety of radio-
active nutrients to the soil, then waited
to see if any rad~oactrveCO, (der~ved
from consumption of this "food") would
be given off.
Several soil samples were
processed by all three instruments on
each Lander. The results? Puzzling.
There is definitely some form of act~vity
In the Martian soil, but it is not yet
clear whether this activity 1s caused by
Martian life or by some unusual
chemical characterist~cof the soil
itself.
Viking has glven us some chemical
information about the Martian soil, but
Figure 15. Landslides Fill Martian
"Grand Canyon". This Viking I Orbiter
picture, taken from a range of 2.000
kilometers (1,240 miles) shows a small
segment of the Valles Marineris ("Mariner
Valley"), a huge gash that runs east-west
for almost 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles)
along the equatorial region of Mars. This
part of the canyon is more than 50
kilometers (30 miles) across and 2
kilometers (1.3 miles) deep. The aprons of
debris on the canyon floor show how the
canyon widens as its walls collapse and
produce immense landslides. The large
apron in the center has overridden and
partly covered an older landslide deposit
to the left. The lines in the deposits
indicate the direction in which the
material flowed after breaking away from
the canyon walls. Whife streaks in the
middle of the canyon are features
produced by winds blowing along the
length of the canyon. Upper walls of the
canyon provide a cross-sectional view
through the different rock layers that cover
this part of Mars; hard, resistant rocks
(lava flows) at the top overlie less durable
rubble (wind-blown dust or volcanic ash)
below. Dark circle near center is
photographic flaw.

Figure 16. The Vanished Rivers of Mars.

Cameras in the Viking I Orbiter
photographed this maze of wandering
channels that cut across the terrain west
of the Viking 1 landing site. The surface
slopes downward, dropping about 3
kilometers (2 miles) in elevation from left to
right. Flood waters once poured across
this region from left to right, cutting
through a high ndge (right) to pour out into
the plains to the east. Older craters were
cut, filled, and eroded by this flood.
Younger craters, formed after the flood,
show sharp outlines. The fate of these
torrents is unknown; the water may now be
frozen as ice in the polar caps or as
permafrost in the Martian soil. Rows of
dark circles are photographic flaws.
 we still do not know enough about its
nature to predict what reactions will
occur when water and nutrients are
added to it in Viking's biological
laboratories. The Martian soil may
contain many unusual and unexpected
chemicals, possibly formed by the
repeated blasts of ultraviolet radiation
from the Sun that penetrate the t h ~ n
atmosphere of Mars and blanket the
surface of the planet. Earth's soils are
not affected in this way, because the
Sun's ultraviolet light is absorbed by
our denser atmosphere, and the
chemistry of Martian soil could very
well be unpredictably different from
the soils of our own planet. Even if
Martian soil is completely lifeless, it is
, possible that some reactions with the
added water and nutrients are
imitating biological activity.
Because of these uncertainties,
scientists are being cautious in their
interpretations of the biological
experiments, even though many of the
results resemble those from tests
made on terrestrial soils rich ~nliving
organisms.
The carbon assimilation experiment
showed that a small amount of CO,
had been converted into carbon
compounds, but this conversion could
have been accomplished by some
reducing agent in the soil, such as
metallic iron.
In the gas exchange experiment,
both oxygen and CO, were given off
when water was added to the soil.
However, these reactions could have
been caused by the decomposition of
oxygen- and carbon-rich materials that
originally had been produced in the
soil by ultra-violet light.
Finally, the labeled release
experiment showed a rapid release of
radioactive CO, that at first seemed to
be caused by biological activity. But
the release quickly slowed down,
suggesting that some chemical in the
soil was being rapidly used up,
whereas a biological reaction should
have continued as the organisms grew
and multiplied.
One problem with a biological
interpretation of these reactions is that
analyses of Martian soil by another
Viking instrument have detected none
of the organic carbon molecules that
make up living things. It is hard to
understand how these chem~cal
reactions could be caused by Earthlike
microbes that leave no other trace,
living or dead, in the Martian soil.
At the moment, we know that there
are reactive ingredients in the soil of
Mars, but it will take more experiments
and more examination of the Viking
data before we know just what they
are. As this work goes on, the
separate Viking experiments support
and reinforce each other, each one
providing data to help interpret the
results of another. The chemical
analyses of the soil, made by X-ray
methods, are used to help interpret the
puzzling results of the biological
experiments. The instrument that has
looked in vain for organic carbon
molecules has also measured the
amount of such inorganic gases as
water and sulfur dioxide in the soil.
When these data are combined and
evaluated, we may have some more
definite answers about the chemicals,
the minerals, and, perhaps, any life
forms in the red soil of Mars.
From Mars to Einstein
Late in November, 1976, Mars
passed behind the Sun, and
communications between Earth and
Viking were cut off until mid-
December, when Mars appeared on
the other side of the Sun. As Mars
passed behind the Sun, the Viking
spacecraft carried out a major
experiment to study, not Mars, but the
basic nature of the universe itself.
The spacecraft s'ignals from Mars
made it possible for scientists on Earth
to carry out the most accurate test
ever performed of Einstein's Theory of
Figure 17. Islands in the Stream The
raised rims of these Martian craters seem
to have acted as barriers to floods of
water that poured across the surface of
Mars in the past. The upstream (lower left)
sides of all the craters seem eroded, with
streamlined islands left on the downstream
(upper right) side. A curiously shaped
ejecta deposit still preserved around the
uppermost crater may have been above
the level of the floods. Th~sspectacular
scenery, photographed by the Viking 1
Orbiter from 1600 kilometers (1000 miles)
above Mars, is located near the Viking 1
landing site on the Plains of Chryse. (Small
dark rings in the picture were caused by a
flaw in the camera.)
Figure 18. The Source of the Flood? This
strange Martian valley, more than 50
kilometers across, shows a striking change
from a chaotic, hilly floor at its head (right)
to a narrower and more streamlined shape
(left). One explanation is that water, frozen
below the Martian surface, suddenly
melted and ran out, causing the ground to
collapse and producing a short-lived
torrent that eroded the downstream part of
the valley. Such "collapsed terrain" is
common in this part of Mars; numerous
large and small impact craters can also be
seen. A smaller valley, possibly produced
by a smaller flood, is visible near the large
impact crater at the top of the picture. This
picture was taken by the Viking 7 Orbiter
from a distance of 2300 kilometers (7900
miles). (The small dark rings in the picture
are caused by a flaw in the camera.)
 General Relativity. The theory, which
explains gravitation and the
relationships between space and time,
predicts that light waves (or radio
waves) will be slowed down as they
pass close to a large and massive
object like the Sun. Precise
measurement of the delay in radio
transmrssion from the Viking
spacecraft as Mars went behind the
Sun would test whether the General
Relativity Theory was correct or
whether some competing theory was a
better explanatron of how our universe
works.
On the day of the experiment,
November 25, 1976, Mars was about
321 million kilometers (200 million
'
miles) from Earth, and the radio
signals took about 42 minutes to make
the round-trip. But the timing and
signalling devices used in Viking
commun~cationsare so accurate that
the transmission time could be
measured to one ten-millionth
(0.0000001) of a second. With such
accuracy, rt was not difficult to
determine that the radio signals from
Mars had been delayed by a full two
ten-thousandths (0.0002) of a
second-exactly the delay predicted
by the Theory of General Relativity.
This Viking relativity experiment was
also the most accurate measurement
of distance ever made; the 321-million-
kilometer Earth-Mars distance was
determined with an accuracy of about
1.5 meters (5 feet)!
What Next?
Although most of the Vikrng
excitement was concentrated in the
first few months after the landings, it is
likely that the Viking Orbiters and
Landers will operate for a year or two,
sending back photographs and other
information from Mars. Each Lander
has a long-lived nuclear power source,
and each Orbiter gets electricity from
large solar cell arrays backed up by
two nickel-cadmium batteries.
Scientists are eager to use the
Lander instruments to follow the
weather patterns at Chryse and Utopia
through the Martian fall and winter,
and into the spring when the time of
planet-wide dust storms is thought to
begin. A complete weather record of
the Martian year, which is two Earth-
years long, would be a unique
document that could lead to better
understanding the weather and climate
on Earth and other worlds.
Geologists are also eager for a long
period of Viking data. The Viking
Landers carry seismometers to aetect
"Marsquakes" so that scientists can
determine whether Mars is active like
the Earth or dead and quiet like the
Figure 19. Splat? The crater Yuty, 18
Moon. Unfortunately, the instrument on kilometers (1 1 miles) in diameter, looks
Viking 1 did not operate. entirely different from the numerous craters
Since Viking 2 landed in September, that cover the Moon and Mercury. The
1976, ~tssensitive seismometer has high central peak inside this crater, and
been steadily recording the tlny the scalloped blanket of ejected material
vibrations caused by the wind and the around it, make Yuty look like a large-scale
mechanical devices on the spacecraft. verslon of a crater formed by throwing a
A distinctive "event" in early pebble into thick mud. One possible
explanation for this resemblance is that
November, 1976, may have been a large quantities of frozen water beneath
quake with a Richter magnitude of 6.4, the Martian surface were instantaneously
fully as large as the major San melted by the heat produced by a large
Fernando earthquake that struck the meteorite impact. As a result, huge "mud
Los Angeles area in 1971. avalanches," made of water and broken
Overhead, the two Orbiters continue rock, poured out of the crater to form the
to take pictures of the surface of Mars curiously-shaped blanket around it. This
view was taken by the Viking 1 Orbiter
and to measure the amount of water
from a range of 1877 kilometers (1 165
vapor in the Martian air and the
miles). (Yuty is named for a village in
temperatures of the Martian surface. Honduras.)
Even before the Landers touched
down, the Orbrters had provided new Figure 20. Cracks in the Martian Crust?
high-resolution photographs of the This part of Mars, west of the Argyre
major features of Mars: circular basins Basin, is cut by numerous parallel
and mountains (Figure 13), huge fractures (faults) thar run for hundreds of
volcanoes (Figure 14), great canyons k~lometersthrough circular craters and flat
and landslides (Figure 15), mazes of plains alike. The dominant set of fractures
(top left) runs from lower left to upper
right, but other fractures run in other
directions (see lower right). The fractures
may be the surface effects of slow
movements in the interior of the planet.
The small fan-shaped channels (top
center) may have been cut by running
water at some time in the past. The light-
colored region (top right) is part of a frost
deposit associated with Mars' south polar
cap.
winding, water-cut channels (Figures
16, 17, and 18), and craters with
curiously scalloped deposits around
them (Figure 19). Large areas of Mars
are covered with strange patterns of
fractures and joints in the bedrock
(Figure 20), and with unexplained
polygonal mark~ngsthat resemble, on
a large scale, the permafrost or
"patterned ground" of Earth's Arctic
regions.
On September 30, 1976, the orbit of
the Viking 2 Orbiter was shifted so that
the spacecraft could swing over the
polar regions of Mars. This maneuver
made it possible to study in detail the
mysterious white polar caps that were
one of the first features of Mars to be
seen 'through Earth-based telescopes.
The Orbiter found that the amount of
water in the atmosphere varies greatly;
it is almost zero near the south (winter)
polar cap, then increases dramatically
as one moves northward into the
northern (summer) hemisphere of
Mars. Over the north polar cap itself,
the atmospheric water content
decreases and the instruments
indicate that the surface temperatures
are about -60" C. (-96" F.).
Cold as these temperatures are,
they are above the freezing point of
CO, in the Martian atmosphere, and
scientists are now sure that the
permanent polar caps on Mars are
made of water ice instead of frozen
CO, ("dry ice"). The polar caps thus
contain a large reservoir of the water
that may have cut the channels on
Mars in an ancient and warmer time.
The cover of ice is not continuous,
and the northern polar cap is cut by
steep-sided ice free valleys (Figure
21). High-magnification pictures of the
valley walls (Figure 22) revealed to
surprised scientists that the "bedrock"
beneath the polar ice is composed of
layer upon layer of what may be
windblown dust. Here under the polar
cap may be preserved the records of
the changing climates of Mars during
thousands or millions of years in the
past. Some individual layers, as much
as 50 meters thick and covering
hundreds of square kilometers, may
have been deposited by huge
sandstorms far more violent than any
observed on Mars today.
When the Orbiters finish their task,
much of Mars will be photographed,
mapped, and studied in great detail,
and future missions to Mars will be
planned with better maps than many
terrestrial explorers have had.
The Vikings also explored other
worlds near Mars. In February, 1977,
the Viking 1 Orbiter made two close
approaches to Phobos, one of the two
moons that circle Mars. From as
close as 120 kilometers (75 miles)
away, the Viking cameras
photographed the irregular, cratered
surface of Phobos in such detail that
tiny craters and mounds a few meters
across can be seen in the pictures
(Figures 23 and 24). Many scientists
think that Phobos, which is only 20
kilometers (12 miles) in diameter, is an
asteroid that was captured by Mars at
some time in the past. If they are right,
the Viking cameras have given us our
f~rstclose look at what we will find
when we venture beyond Mars into the
millions of tiny bodies that occupy the
Asteroid Belt itself.
Even as the Viking data continue to
flood in, there are active discussions
Figure 21. The Land of the (Martian)
Midnight Sun. The north polar region of
Mars is displayed by the camera of the
Viking 2 Orbiter as the spacecraft passed
over the Martian Arctic for the first time in
October, 1976. Broad regions of white ice
are broken by darker slopes and valleys
cut into layered rocks that underlie the
icecap itself. Individual rock layers appear
as curved parallel lines that follow the
contours of the slopes and valleys.
Measurements of 'the surface temperature,
made by instruments carried on the
Orbiter, indicate that the ice is frozen
water, not frozen carbon dioxide. Top to
bottom of the picture is about 360
kilometers (225 miles). The Martian north
pole is about 300 kilometers ( I 70 miles)
beyond the top of the picture. (Just like
the Earth's Arctic regions in summer, this
part of Mars also has a "midnight sunM--or
total daylight--because the inclination of
Mars' axis and the length of the Martian
day are almost identical to Earth's.
Figure 22. A Valley that Cuts into the
Past. Walls of a deep valley, eroded in the
Martian north polar cap, display the
layered deposits of rock or windblown
dust that underlie the polar ice itself.
Individual layers as little as 50 meters (165
feet) thick can be detected, even though
the picture was taken from about 2200
kilometers (1370 miles) away. The different
layers may record many past changes in
the Martian climate, by the same
mechanisms that produce the changing
ice ages on the Earth. Dark smudges on
the ice surface may be recent deposits of
windblown dust. This closeup view, taken
in Martian mid-summer (October, 1976) by
the Viking 2 Orbiter, shows an area of the
polar cap about 60 by 30 kilometers (37
by 18 miles). Water ice (white) covers a
high, level plateau, and the steep wall of
the valley (top) drops about 500 meters
(1650 feet) from the ice layer to the
bottom. This color picture was made by
combining black-and-white pictures taken
through three different color filters.
about foilow-up missions to Mars that
can now be planned on the basis of
what we have already learned. For all
that Viking has done, it is only a
beginning; what we have learned from
the robots on Mars is still not much
more than we had learned from the
robots (Surveyor spacecraft) that we
sent to the Moon before the first
astronauts landed there. We know that
the surface of Mars will support the
weight of machines and humans. We
have the first rough chemical analyses
of the soil. We have taken pictures of
the surface and dug trenches in it.
And we can now make excellent maps
of the planet and pick the sites for
future landings.
To send astronauts to Mars would
be a major undertaking. Not only
would a manned mission require
extensive technological developments,
but there are serious medical
problems involved in keeping the crew
physically fit during a two-year trip in
zero gravity.
For the near future at least,
machines must do our exploring for
us. One possibility would be a robot
"rover" that would land on Mars and
then drive across its surface, making
chemical and biological analyses as it
went. Another possible mission would
involve a new kind of Orbiter around
Mars, one that would carry instruments
to measure the chemical composition
of Mars' surface, just as instruments
carried on the Apollo spacecraft
mapped the chemistry of nearly one-
quarter of the Moon. From this Orbiter,
probes could be dropped to the
surface, carrying instruments
especially designed to survive the
shock of a hard landing. In this way a
network of instruments could be
placed on Mars to give us global
coverage of the planet's chemistry,
Marsquakes, and weather.
More ambitious, but entirely within
our abilities, is a more complex robot
that would land on Mars, collect
samples of rocks and soil, and return
them to Earth, where they could be
studied directly with the resources of
all of Earth's laboratories. Only in this
way can we make the thousand
necessary analyses that are too
complex to be made by machines on
the surface of Mars. Only with such
returned samples can we determine
with confidence the ages of the rocks,
the minerals that compose them, their
complete chemical composition, and
the weathering they have undergone.
With instruments that are now
available, we could finally establish
beyond doubt whether such returned
samples contain any Martian life. With
the experience of a decade in space,
and w~ththe knowledge gained from
sampling the Moon, we can collect,
preserve, and analyze such samples
from the surface of Mars whenever we
choose.
The Vikings have become a bridge
into the future. When the Landers have
sent their last data back to Earth, they
will remain like monuments on the
surface of Mars, waiting silently until
new machines, and finally human
beings, come to stand beside them.
(Figure 25.)
Figure 23. A Battered Moon of Mars.
Even tiny craters in the surface of Mars'
innermost moon, Phobos, are captured ln
this photograph taken by the Viking 1
Orbiter cameras on February 18, 1977. To
take this plcture, the spacecraft came as
close as 480 kilometers (300 miles) to the
tiny moon, photographing features as
small as 20 meters (65 feet) across.
Phobos 1s elliptical ~nshape; the top-to-
bottom diameter is 19 kilometers (12
miles), but diameters ~nother direct~ons
are 21 kilometers (13 miles) and 27
kilometers (1 7 miles). Because of its
irregular shape and anc~ent,cratered
surface, scientists think that Phobos may
be an asteroid that was captured by Mars,
possibly billions of years ago. A large
crater at the lower right is named Hall after
the American astronomer who discovered
the two moons of Mars in 1877. The
ragged appearance at the right slde is
produced by shadows on the unlit parts of
Phobos' ~rregularsurface.
Figure 24. A Moon About to Break?
Parallel 11nesof fractures and craters
extend across the whole surface of Mars
~nnermoon Phobos Some sclentlsts
thlnk that the whole moon IS gradually
breaklng up from the Impacts of large
meteror~tesand from the tldal forces
produced during ~ t srotations around Mars
In the future, Phobos may dlslntegrate
completely into small fragments, formlng a
nng around Mars 11kethe fam111arr~ngsof
Saturn or the s~mllarr~ngsd~scovered
recently around the distant planet Uranus
Thls plcture was taken by the Vlk~ng1
Orblter as lt passed wlthln 300 kilometers
(200 mlles) of Phobos on May 27, 1977
The picture on the right 1s the onglnal
data, the left-hand picture w the computer-
processed vers~on
Figure 25. A Viking Sees a Sunset on a
New World. The Sun has set on Mars, but
a bngenng twil~ghtbnngs a reddrsh glow
to the Martian surface (left) and to the top
of the Vlklng I Lander (lower nght) The
11ghtof the Sun 1s scattered by red dust ~n
the atmosphere, colonng the surface and
producing a reddlsh color ln the sky where
the Sun has set Near the Sun, the plcture
1s overexposed, and that part of the sky
appears whlte (upper nght) The colored
nngs around the whlte spot are not real,
they are produced dunng the computer
processing of the camera's pictures A
human eye. looklng at the same scene,
would see a black nlght sky, grad~ng
un~formlyInto a reddlsh glow where the
Sun has set

Figure 26. "Mars, this is Viking .. .

Viking, this is Mars." An apparent
welcoming committee of lava-11ke Martlan
rocks 1s framed by the radlo antenna (top)
and other ~nstrumentson the Vlklng 2
Lander The pink color of the sky 1s
produced by hne red dust carried by the
Maroan wlnds The Amencan flag (left)
and several color cal~braboncharts helped
scient~stsdetermine the actual color of the
Marhan sky and landscape from the
plctures returned by V~kingScameras
Appendix
Suggestions for Further
Reading
The Planet Mars
Avener, M.M., and R.D. MacElroy
.(1976), On the Habitability of Mars,
NASA Special Publication SP-414,
U.S. Government Printing Office, 105
p., price $5.25. A long-range
consideration of whether life can
survive on Mars and of how we m~ght
bring life . . . Including ourselves . . . to
the planet to change its present
environment into something more
Earthlike.
Bradbury, R., A.C. Clarke, B.
Murray, C. Sagan, and W. Sullivari
(1973), Mars and the Mind of Man,
New York, Harper and Row, 143 p.,
price $7.95. A collection of essays
about Mars, in which five scientists
and writers discuss their feelings
about Mars and what might be found
there as Mariner 9 went into orbit
around the planet in 1971. The book
also presents some later reactions of
the same people to the discoveries
made by the spacecraft.
Carr, M. (1976), "The Volcanoes of
Mars." Scientific American, Vol. 234,
No. 1, January, 1976, pp. 3 2 4 3 . A
detailed discussion of the huge
volcanoes discovered on Mars in 1971
by the Mariner 9 spacecraft: their size
and appearance, their differences from
terrestrial volcanoes, their ages, and
what they tell about the history and
internal structure of Mars.
Glasstone, S. (1968), 7he Book of
Mars, NASA Special Publication SP-
179. U.S. Government Printing Office.
315 p., price $5.25. A thorough
compilation, now somewhat dated, of
our knowledge about Mars in the pre-
Mariner and pre-Viking years. Still a
useful source of information about the
general characteristics of Mars and
the history of study of the planet.
Hartmann, W.H., and 0 . Raper
(1974), The New Mars: the Discoveries
of Mariner 9, NASA Special Publication
SP-337, U.S. Government Printing
Office, 179 p., price $8.75. A
beautifully illustrated textbook that
combines the early discoveries about
Mars with the findings of Mariner 9's
close-up pictures. Carefully selected
photographs highlight separate
chapters that describe different
features of Mars. Photographs
compare similar views of Mars and
Earth.
Mars as Viewed by Mariner 9
(1974), NASA Special Publication SP-
329, U.S. Government Printing Office,
225 p., price $8.15. A detailed "picture
book" of Mars as seen through the
cameras of Mariner 9, this document
contains several hundred captioned
illustrations of the craters, volcanoes,
canyons, dunes, clouds, and ice caps
that make Mars a complex and
fascinating planet, partly like Earth and
partly lhke the Moon.
Hoyt, W.G. (1976), Lowell and Mars,
Tucson, University of Arizona Press,
376 p., price $13.95 hardbound, $8.50
paperback. A detailed and scholarly
biography of the astronomer Percival
Lowell and his involvement in the
controversy over the existence of
intell~gentlife on Mars. For people
interested in the history of astronomy
and the study of Mars in the early 20th
Century.
Mutch, T.A., R.E. Arvidson, J.W.
Head Ill, K.L. Jones, and R.S.
Saunders (1976), The Geology of
Mars, Princeton, N.J., Princeton
University Press, 400 p., price $35.00.
A graduate-level textbook on the
surface features, geological
processes, and rock formations of
Mars as determined from spacecraft
observations. (There is a brief
appendix containing early Viking
results.) The book provides a detailed
scientific summary of our current
knowledge about Mars. It also
provides good comparisons of how
the same geological forces . . .
volcanoes, wind, and water . . .
operate in different ways on the Earth,
Moon, and Mars.
Veverka, J. (1977), "Phobos and
Deimos," Scientific American, Vol. 236,
No. 2, February, 1977, pp. 3 0 3 7 . A
description of the two tiny moons of
Mars, revealed in close-up
photographs taken by the Mariner and
Viking spacecraft. The moons may be
captured asteroids. They give us an
indication of what millions of other
small bodies in the solar system may
be like.
Viking Results
"Mars: Our First Close Look,"
Nat~onalGeographic, Vol. 151, No. 1,
January, 1977, pp. 2-31. Handsomely
illustrated presentation of Viking results
for the general reader. Scientific
results are combined with beautiful
color panoramas of the surface of
Mars.

Young, R. S. (1976) "Viking on
Mars-the First Months," NASA Report
to Educators, Vol. 4, No. 4, December,
1976, pp. 1-5. To obtain write
Educational Programs DivisionIFE,
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Washington, D.C.
20546.
Two technical summaries of the
V~kingscientific results are:
Young, R.S. (1976), "Viking on Mars:
A Preliminary Survey ," American
Scientist, Vol. 64, No. 6, November-
December, 1976, pp. 620-627.
Viking 1: Early Results, (1976),
NASA Special Publication SP-408,
U.S. Government Printing Office, 67 p.,
orice $2.00.
Technical articles on all aspects of
Viking science, written by the scientists
themselves, have appeared in the
following issues of the magazine
Science, published by the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science:
27 August 1976, Vol. 193, No. 4255,
pp. 759-815.
1 October 1976, Vol. 194, No. 4260,
pp. 57-105.
17 December 1976, Vol. 194, No.
4271, pp. 1274-1 353.
Experiments and Activities
1. Geography and Mission
Planning.
The following are the Martian
latitudes and longitudes of locations
that were considered as possible
landing sites for the Viking spacecraft:
Latitude Longitude
22" N. 48" W. (Viking 1 landed
near here.)
20" N. 108" E.
44"N. 10" W.
46"N. l l O O W .
46" N. 150" E. (Viking 2 landed
near here.)
7" S. 43" W.
5"s. 5"W.
If MASA (the Martian Aeronautics
and Space Administration) sent
spacecraft to land at the same
latitudes and longitudes on Earth,
where would each one land? What
hazards would be encountered? What
would happen to the spacecraft? What
would the spacecraft see? Would it
detect water? life? intelligence?
If you were working for MASA, what
sites would you pick for a landing on
Earth? Why? For each site, identify the
hazards that your spacecraft lander
would have to survive. What would you
expect to find? Find some pictures of
the Earth from space to examine for
interesting locations.
2. Retrorockets
Demonstrate the retrorocket
principle by attaching a balloon to a
wooden block and sliding the block
down an inclined plane. Determine the
velocity from the length of the plane
and the time it takes the block to slide
down it. Repeat the same experiment,
letting the inflated balloon expel air in
the direction that the block is moving
(i.e., "downhill"). Show that this
arrangement slows the block down,
just as retrorocket motors slowed
down the Viking Landers. Turn the
block around so that the balloon
expels air in the "uphill" direction as
the block slides down the plane.
Calculate the amount of velocity
added to (or subtracted from) the
block by the action of the balloon in
each use.
3. Life Detection
Carry out simple versions of the
Viking life detection experiments by
making chemical tests for the
presence of life in terrestrial soils. An
apparatus to detect carbon dioxide
(CO,) or water (H,O) given off by
organisms in the soils can be made by
connecting two bottles with a U-tube.
Place a sample of organic-rich soil in
one bottle. (Use commercial peat if no
suitable soil is available.)
To detect CO,, place a limewater
solution in the other bottle. The end of
the U-tube should be placed about 10
mm ('12 inch) above the surface of the
limewater. Any CO, given off will react
with the limewater to produce a cloudy
or milky appearance. (Try using a
photographic light-meter to measure
how rapidly the limewater turns
cloudy.)
Although water in the soil may not
be produced by organisms, its
presence indicates the possibility of
life. Water given off by the soil can be
observed by usirig a commercial
drying agent, like "Indicating Drierite"
or cobalt chloride paper, instead of
limewater. The drying material can be
placed either in the U-tube or in the
second bottle. Water can be detected
by weighing the drying material or by
noting the change in color.
In experimenting with heating the
soil, low heat should increase organic
activity and should cause a faster
evolution of CO, or H,O. Too much
heat will kill the organisms and stop
gas production. In addition, test a
"control sample" that has been
sterilized by heating the soil bottle in
boiling water, and observe the
difference in behavior.
4. Wind Erosion
Experiment with making wind-
produced landforms by blowing an
electric fan (or hair dryer) over a large
shallow box filled with loose sand.
Vary the force of the wind, the
distance of the fan from the sand, and
the angle at which the wind strikes the
surface. Try to dupl~catethe sand
dunes and ripples seen in Viking
pictures of the Martian surface.
Place rocks on the sand surface,
and try to duplicate other features
seen on Mars: wind-scour under rocks,
trails of sand on the downwind side of
rocks, and sand deposits on top of
rocks. How can these features be
used to determine the wind direction?
Reverse the direction of the wind, and
see how much wind force is needed to
change these wind features so that
they indicate the new wind direction.
Do wind features on Mars necessarily
indicate the present wind
direction? Try making and studying
3-dimensional stereo photographs of
your artificial wind features. (See
Experiment #5.)
5. Stereo Photography
Demonstrate how three-dimensional
stereo pictures, like those produced
by the Viking cameras, are made and
used. Take one picture of a scene
(e.g., a classroom), move the camera
2-3 feet sideways, and take another
picture of the same scene. Examine
the two pictures with a stereoscope,
moving them until the picture is seen
in three dimensions. Make sketches
and maps of the scene, indicating
objects that are high and low, near
and far. A print-making color camera
is convenient, but any camera can be
used.
If you use a color camera, you can
demonstrate how the Viking cameras
produce color pictures by combining : efficiency of each method, i.e., the
photographs taken through different
color filters. Experiment by placing
colored filters (of glass or plastic) in
front of the camera lens before you
take the picture. Wratten gelatin filters
are best: number 47B (blue), 29 (red),
61 (green). Colored acetate can also
be used; it is cheaper, but it w~lldistort
the image somewhat. Take each
picture in a stereo-pair through
different colored filters, then "combine"
the colors by viewing the stereo-pair
with the stereoscope. Which pair of
color filters produces the best match
with the colors in the original scene?
Are two colors adequate to make a
good match?
6. Magnetic Material in the
Soil
Make a synthetic "Martian soil" by
mixing about 5 percent of magnetic
material (crushed magnetite, FeQ, or
iron metal filings) with clean white
sand. Using a large bar or horseshoe
magnet, try various methods of
collecting this magnetic material from
the soil, e.g., scraping the magnet
through the soil, pouring the soil over
the magnet, or spreading out the soil
in a thin layer and passing the magnet
over it. First wrap the magnet in paper
or plasiir: film so that you can easily
remove the magnetic material that
adheres to it.
Examine the collected material with
a hand lens or a low-power
microscope. How much white
nonmagnetic sand was collected with
the dark magnetic material?
Prepare a soil sample that contains
a known weight of magnetic material.
Try various collection methods and
weigh the amount of magnetic material
collected in each way. Calculate the
weight collected divided by the weight
originally present. Discuss why some
collection methods do not approach
100 percent efficiency.
Make up several soil samples with
varying amounts of magnetic materia!,
e.g., 1, 5, 10, and 25 percent. Process
each sample with the most efficient
collection method, and weigh the
amount of magnetic material collected.
Calculate the total amount of magnetic
material present, knowing that:
(amount present) = (amount collected)
/ (efficiency). Repeat the experiment a
few times. How reproducible are your
results? How accurate are they?
Substitute a different magnetic
material (iron metal filings for
magnetite or vice versa) and repeat
the experiments. Does the efficiency of
the collecting methods change? Why?
7. Mechanical Properties of
the Soil
Study how the mechanical
properties of different soils affect the
appearance of trenches dug in them.
Make a series of soil samples by
mixing loose sand with varying
amounts of fine clay or chalk powder.
Experiment on mixtures that contain
zero percent clay (pure sand), 25
percent, 50 percent, and 100 percent
clay (pure clay).
Make trenches by sticking a ruler
into the soil and pulling it through the
soil sample. Note the appearance of
each trench, and describe what
happens to the walls after the trench is
formed. What percentage of clay is
needed to form a steep-walled trench
like those in the Viking pictures?
Pour a sample of each soil onto a flat
surface from a height of a few
centimeters. Note how the piles differ
in smoothness, in slope, and in the
number and size of clumps formed by
the soil.
Is there any difference in behavior
between the soil that has 25 percent
clay and the soil that is pure clay?
Examine the Viking pictures of the
trenches dug in Martian soil. Does the
Martian soil behave like loose sand?
Which soil sample best duplicates the
behavior of the Martian soil?
Study the effect of water by
sprinkling a little water on the surface
of the soil sample before digging the
trench. Through which soil does the
water move fastest? How does the
water affect the shape of the trench in
each soil?
8. The "Canal" Illusion
On a white sheet of paper about 2
feet by 3 feet in size, draw a random
arrangement of dots, circles, ovals,
straight lines, wavy lines and irregular
smudges. Make sure that the diagram
is a completely random pattern. Hang
the paper at the front of the classroom
so that it is well-lit, and have the
students draw what they see.
Compare the drawings by students
who are closest to the diagram with
those by students who are further
away. Which ones reproduce the
pattern best? How many in which
group draw straight lines where none
are present in the picture?
(This experiment was first performed
many years ago by the astronomer
Maunder to demonstrate the eye's
tendency to produce imaginary lines to
connect objects that are entirely
separate but poorly seen.)
9. Mars in Fact and Fiction.
People have often commented that
science-fiction literature often predicts
future facts and developments. (Jules
Verne's From the Earth to the Moon,
and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
are often cited as examples.)
Science-fiction has been written
about Mars for more than three-
quarters of a century. A partial list of
books, all available in paperback, is:
H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
(1898).
Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of
Mars (1912).
C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
(1944).
Robert A. Heinlein, Red Planet
(1949).
Ray Bradbury, The Martian
Chronicles (1950).
Arthur C. Clarke, Sands of Mars
(1952).
What conditions of temperature,
atmosphere, and climate did the
various authors attribute to Mars? What
kinds of Martians lived in these
conditions? How did Earth people
adjust to Mars, and Martians to Earth?
Did the authors' view of Martian
conditions change as we learned more
about Mars? How accurately did the
authors predict the real nature of Mars
as we have determined it from Viking
and other spacecraft?
How would you write an "accurate"
science-fiction novel based on the
view of Mars revealed by Viking? What
kinds of "Martians" could exist? What
protection would humans need on the
surface of Mars? What hazards would
humans on Mars face from natural
processes or from "Martians"?
Suggested Viewing
A series of four films produced by
NASA discuss the planet Mars and the
Viking life detection experiments. The
films, produced before the Viking
landings on Mars, may be borrowed
from NASA Regional Film Libraries
without rental charge.
Life?
HQ 261-COLOR-1 4 % MINS.
General characteristics of life are first
described with non-life similarities
noted. A number of adaptations are
included to show how life has adapted
to Earth c ~ n d i t i o nand
~ , how certain
individuals 'ban withstand
environmental insults. In conclusion,
the habitat of Mars is described with
the question raised as to the possibility
of life existing there.
A Question of Life
HQ 270-COLOR-28% MINS.
The film is a composite version of three
15-minute films: Life? (HQ 261), Mars:
Is There Life? (HQ 263) and Mars and
Beyond(HQ 264). A definition of life
and general conditions necessary to
sustain life are discussed. Viewers are
introduced to the possible past history
of Mars as well as its present surface
topography and its capacity to support
life as we know it. Major emphasis is
placed on the Viking life detection
experiments including the three
biology experiments and the organic
analysis instrument. Consideration is
given to the potential significance of
discovering life elsewhere in the
universe.

Mars-Is There Life?

HQ 263-COLOR-1 4% MINS.
Students are introduced to the possible
past history of Mars, as well as its
present surface topography-from
volcanoes, ice caps, stream beds,
impact craters, canyons and wind-
eroded surfaces. The Viking lander and
its biology experiments are discussed
in relationship to the search for life on
Mars. In conclusion, students are
asked to consider life forms that might
be able to survive on Mars, and the
potential significance of their
discovery.

Mars and Beyond.

HQ 264-COLOR-1 4% MINS.
This film traces the Viking mission to
Mars to specifically explore the
biochemical evidence of life.
Elementary chemical components of
life (as we know it) are introduced;
these are related to the organic
analysis instrument on board the Viking
lander. The instrument is described by
design and operations. The program
concludes with the potential
significance of biochemical findings-
how they may relate to past, present
and future Martian life.

$7 U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1977 0-247-91 5